The Cochran Firm
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The Cochran Firm Attorneys Nominated for Trial Lawyer of the Year Award
Four attorneys with The Cochran Firm's Dothan office, Cochran Cherry Givens Smith Lane & Taylor, were chosen as finalists for the esteemed 2008 Trial Lawyer of the Year Award presented by the Public Justice Foundation.
Farrest Taylor, Joe Lane, Angela Mason and Keith Givens were nominated for their work as part of the legal team who litigated the environmental class action lawsuit against chemical giant E.I. DuPont.
After nearly four years of litigating Perrine v. DuPont de Nemours and Company, a jury verdict awarded approximately $380 million for a class of 8,000 citizens in and around the town of Spelter, West Virginia. This was the largest verdict for individuals in America in the last year.
The Trial Lawyer of the Year Award is presented annually by the Public Justice Foundation to the trial attorney or attorneys who have made the greatest contribution to the public interest within the past year by trying or settling a precedent-setting case. Finalists and recipients exemplify how trial lawyers use their skills and determination to create a more just society.
An extremely complex environmental lawsuit filed in 2004, a team of 20 attorneys spent more than 30,000 hours on the case over a period of four years. In October 2007, the four-phase trial lasted six weeks with the jury finding DuPont liable for its pollution and "wanton, willful and reckless behavior" when it created a 112-acre waste site, putting residents at risk of disease.
Class members were awarded $135 million for 40 years of medical monitoring, $55 million for soil and residential clean-up, and $196 million in punitive damages.
The legal team of attorneys for the DuPont case was one of three finalists for the award given by the foundation. Twenty cases were nominated this year for issues ranging from fraudulent pricing practices by a major pharmaceutical company to Hurricane Katrina victims' rights.
Also nominated for their work as part of the legal team for the Perrine v. DuPont de Nemours case were Mike Papantonio, Virginia M. Buchanan, Ned McWilliams and Brian H. Barr of Levin Papantonio Law Firm in Pensacola, Florida and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. of Kennedy & Madonna, LLP in Hurley, New York.
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